Saturday, June 21, 2008

MR. EYBYANINCH BOOK 2 PAGE 5

MR. EYBYANINCH BOOK 2 PAGE 4

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Watched Control last night. It's Anton Corbijn's Ian Curtis biopic. And it's good. The music is excellent, which seems obvious, but it's more of a stretch than you might think. First of all, unlike other movies about British musicians from the 70s, Corbijn actually got to use music from David Bowie, Iggy Pop, the Buzzcocks, Roxy Music, the Sex Pistols and, of course, Joy Division. Which is all great (and they're all good choices of songs as well).

But this isn't just The Big Chill for suicidal epileptics in highly influential bands. The actors playing the members of the band all learned the Joy Division songs and play them live to film. It's pretty amazing. All the live performances seemed great at the time I was watching, but I had to re-watch them when the credits came up. What's most impressive is that they manage to capture (and even demonstrate) the strange recording sounds, both in-studio and live. Speaking of the credits, that Killers cover of Dead Souls was just dreadful, and would've been an AWESOME place for Day of the Lords, instead. A lot of the songs are arranged in autobiographical order, making them seem a bit on the nose sometimes, but whatever. You have to play Love Will Tear Us Apart, and you're not going to play it during the bus trip where Curtis has his first seizure, you're going to play it when The Love is Tearing them Apart.

As a biopic, Corbijn pretty much hits all the wikipedia/allmusicguide points. There's nothing particularly new here, but I'm not sure Curtis lived much of an engaging life beyond the touchstone moments. Maybe the movie would've been stronger if it emphasized the dull struggle of an uneventful life? I can't say. But as a movie (apart from the biographical elements), the real strengths lie in the performances of Sam Riley as Curtis and Samantha Morton as his wife, Deborah. Riley looks like Curtis, and he paints a very convincing picture of a gothy poet turned post-punk almost star suffering from crippling disease and depression. The movies of the 70s gave us the anti-hero, but Curtis was, at the time, giving us the anti-heroic. The climaxes of the story rest principally on his inability — his frozen response — to do anything when his own Romantic ideals conflict with his desires. He doesn't know how to be a rock star or a husband or a father or even a friend. So he just doesn't bother being any of them. But when he's forced to perform one of those functions, he instead chooses the one act that will protect him from ever having to take any action again. Riley is asked to alternate between being dead, soulless, occasionally manic and always charismatic and he succeeds brilliantly. He's particularly fearless in depicting Curtis' stage performances, never appearing to be mocking or knowingly winking at the camera.

Samantha Morton is amazing, as usual. I've been in love with her since she played Hattie in The Sweet and Lowdown. She's probably the most human actor working today, and brings all that to bear in this film.

The film itself is gorgeous. Apparently shot in color and converted to a high-contrast, low-grain black and white, Corbijn shoots every scene with his photographer's eye, and manages to elevate the mundane into something more sublime.

I do think the whole thing could've been a bit longer, a bit fuller. The unavoidable problem is that Curtis and Joy Division's story ends before it would really begin. The entire legend surrounding the band is that they managed to get these few songs recorded and those few gigs performed before Curtis would end it all. But that seems like more of a reason to focus some attention on those in his inner circle. The rest of Joy Division and the other various managers and hangers on never fell fully fleshed out. Even in a biopic about one person, there weren't so many people around him that they couldn't have been rounder or less like caricatures. I think Riley's performance would've benefited more from having more to contrast it with. Perhaps that's being saved for the New Order sequel?

MR. EYBYANINCH BOOK 2 PAGE 1

Book 2 Begins. And like that other Begins, I'll be spending weeks talking about special ears.

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So, the second-highest rated recent album on metacritic is Opeth's Watershed (which a few reviewers claimed the album is). I was curious, since you don't often see one-man prog-metal bands well-liked by critics (or anyone with taste!). My immediate reaction on the first listen is: it kinda sucks... it just sounds like less-epic prog-metal. I don't know, I thought "epic" was about the only thing prog metal had going for it?

So, what's happening in the strange world of Thrash revivalism? Warbringer's War Without End? Ah, my feelings are so mixed on Thrash revivalism. It's alwauys the same internal debate. On the one hand, Thrash is the greatest form of metal. On the other, it's hard to do anything new with it (which is why it didn't last very long). On the one hand, Warbringer do absolutely nothing new but reshuffle the deck. On the other hand, they only reshuffle the hottest elements of old-school Thrash. Even more than Demiricous, these guys sometimes seem like they are just going through the old catalog and mixing and matching bits of Metallica, Sepultura, Slayer, etc. and making strange hybrid songs. Strange, because you can almost spot the Arise chorus, combined with the Fade to Black rhythms and the Reign of Blood guitar squeels. But it's all your favorite parts! Man, my airconditioning isn't going to be very effective if Warbringer keeps throwing all my critical faculties out the window. I need that glass to protect me from the elements.

Monday, June 09, 2008

A LITTLE MORE

Kevin and Jog also had flattering things to say about books, Cliff Face and otherwise (some of which I also bought, but have no thoughts on yet because I spent 10 hours trying to remember how to do the most perfuntory things in Dreamweaver).

Also, I was TOTALLY at this party, but met none of the people mentioned or pictured. I was too busy... what's the euphemism? Oh, right, 'talking to neilalien'.

OFFICIAL EMAW 10 AND MR. EYBYANINCH BOOK 1 PREVIEWS

MoCCA 08 DONE

Thanks to everyone who came out to MoCCA this weekend and stopped by. It was great seeing old friends and putting our books in the hands of new people. Also, the drinking and karaoke. I keep tryimg to write something more comprehensive, but the urge to type keeps losing to the urge to sleep.

MR. EYBYANINCH 27

Sunday, June 01, 2008

One More Day of Primaries before the Convention!

MoCCA!!!!!!!

So, I actually have most of this book printed. This is quite an achievement, considering that I don't have this book fully drawn, I don't know what kind of paper the cover will be made from, I don't know how I'm going to bind the thing, and something else I'm forgetting.

Two more pages, that's what I'm drawing and then THAT's the cliffhanger right there. It's a good place, I think. Then the cover and the standy thing to fight Marcos' Carl standy thing in combat.

And then i need to finish assembling EMAW #10, and putting together the remaining olde books for show.

In case you haven't checked the blog since Friday morning, I've drawn and posted pages 17–26 this weekend. I'm starting to feel like it too. Tanquerey, Sirah, Jamesons and Baccardi should mix nicely, right? What if I add orange juice? What if I add Orange Juice Jones?

MR. EYBYANINCH 23

MR. EYBYANINCH 22

Last scan of the night. More work to do, but last scan.

Best part of working so much? 24 hours without pants. You're welcome, my neighbor.

So, this was meant to be page 20, according to my layouts. Screwed that up. Still 4 pages left to do then! At least. I'm going to do an accounting of books to print tomorrow, and, if it's favorable to me, I might extend drawing into the middle of the week.